Photographer charged in porn star's homicide

Montco man, assistant jailed. Woman's body wrapped in backdrop.

A photographer and his assistant, who were working on a bondage-themed shoot with a Canadian porn actress, were arrested Wednesday in connection with her slaying.

Natel King, 23, was last seen alive Feb. 29 in Conshohocken, when she worked with Anthony J. Frederick, 41, of Eagleville, Montgomery County, and Jennifer Mitkus, 29, of Oaks, Montgomery County, authorities said. King's partially decomposed body was found Tuesday by a woman walking near the Schuylkill River in Whitemarsh Township.

King was naked, gagged with a red ball attached to a leather strap, and had been stabbed in the neck and chest. She also had stab wounds on both hands.

"Obviously, she put up a fight against her attacker," Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

An autopsy showed the manner of King's death was homicide.

King, who also was known by the stage name Taylor Sumers, was in the United States for the photo shoot with Frederick, who runs an adult photo business, Castor said.

Mitkus was Frederick's assistant during the photo shoot, Castor said.

The arrests came quickly after the discovery of King's body, he said.

Her body was wrapped in dark drape backdrops commonly used in photography shoots, and a spray can used by photographers to blow dust off lenses was nearby, Castor said.

"Lucky for us, most murderers are amateurs," Castor said. "Once someone is dead, then you have this 125-pound dead weight covered with blood that you can't just throw out in the garbage. He panicked and wrapped her body up with the can of spray inside it.

"He just wanted to get rid of her fast," he said.

Frederick is charged with first- and third-degree murder, possessing an instrument of crime, unsworn falsification to authorities and abuse of a corpse.

He is in Montgomery County Prison without bail.

Mitkus is charged with unsworn falsification to authorities and hindering apprehension.

Mitkus is in county prison under $100,000 bail.

Court records detail the following:

While investigating King's disappearance, detectives learned Frederick used a Conshohocken studio for adult photography sessions. Frederick told police he met with King at the Hampton Inn in Oaks to shoot bondage photos.

King and Frederick went to a Conshohocken home and met Mitkus there. During that photo shoot, in the basement of the home, King received a call on her cell phone from a friend in Canada, Curtis Shears.

Shears told police that King was worried during the photo shoot.

"I asked if she was worried about not getting paid or getting killed and she said, "I don't know. Both,"' Shears told police.

Frederick said he took about 20 photos of King and Mitkus gave him $900 to pay King.

He told police he last saw King outside the home when she asked where she could get something to eat.

At the home where the photos were shot, Castor said police found a poem about cutting and bleeding and a glass jar filled with a red liquid.

Castor said Frederick provided police with the photos he shot of King, but said he erased some of the digital photos.

"I think she was likely murdered at that time and likely that his pictures captured that," Castor said.